


Gravitation is Not Responsible

by FivePips



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Diving, M/M, Olympics, Past Head Trauma, Platform Diving, Rio 2016, Synchronized Diving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-07-28 07:29:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7630753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FivePips/pseuds/FivePips
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In 2012, Remus was supposed to walk away with a gold in synchronized diving but a tragic accident put that to an end. Now, almost 3 years later, he works as a swim instructor at a local posh sports centre. When Remus has an overly enthusiastic new boy in his swim class, he doesn’t expect to be sucked back into the diving world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rehashing the Past

**Author's Note:**

> I know nothing about diving outside of pretending to know what’s going on with my mom when we watch it haha. So forgive me if you do and I mess it up royally. But I wanted to do something Olympic-y because I love the Olympics and Rio’s opening ceremony is less than a week away.
> 
> The title comes from an Einstein quote: "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."

_“Lupin and Prewett are the favorites here in London. Both are hometown heroes and also favorites for the gold on the world stage. They’ve competed together since they were boys.”_  
  
_“Yes, Jack, they’re phenoms. Lupin is especially skilled. He’ll be diving for gold alone as well next week.”_  
  
_“Growing up in council flats in London, he told me that he never truly thought he’d be here tonight. His story is truly inspiring.”_  
  
_“Here we go. Lupin and Prewett are going for a handstand back three flip in pike. Incredibly difficult but for them not so much. I’ve watched them execute this flawlessly in practice yesterday. It was something else, I must say.”_  
  
_“Oh my god, Remus Lupin lost his balance and hit his head on the platform before falling into the water. Oh god, we should go to break, this is… this isn’t something you want to see.”_

***

Remus woke up with a start. His heart was pounding against his ribcage and he had broke out into a cold sweat. It was something that happened regularly since that day on the platform. Even though the accident happened nearly three years previous, Remus was still suffering the side effects. He had tried therapy for a while but just stopped going because it always made him feel so uncomfortable.  
  
“Love, are you awake?” His mum yelled through his door.  
  
“Yeah.” He said after clearing his throat. Remus wiped a hand over his face and proceeded to go through the ministrations of getting ready for work.  
  
Life for Remus was always routine but since his career went off the rails it seemed far too endless and dull. At least before he was working towards a goal but now he was teaching snotty little brats how to swim with no end in sight. He couldn’t go back to school because his memory wasn’t the greatest since he had cracked his skull open. There was basically no prospects for a twenty year old with only experience in jumping off high things into water.  
  
Out in the kitchen his mum was packing a lunch for his father, who worked at the same centre as a custodian, and himself. Once he scarfed down some eggs and toast, he was off to work. It took about an hour to get to work via the tube and a bit of walking. He always got a lot of reading done.  
  
It was a usual day at the pool. Remus concentrated on his students and did the best job he could. He mostly managed to go unnoticed through most of his days. If the parents or nannies of the little ones knew who he was, they never said anything. He also went by his middle name so that helped a little to avoid talks about his past.  
  
“Harry! No running!” A curvy red head hissed at a little boy who went darting by Remus in the hall going to the pool. “Bloody hell, this kid.” She sighed, looking to Remus as if he knew him.  
  
Remus just smiled at her as they made their way, trailing a ways behind Harry.  
  
“He’s a handful and you look like you’re going to be teaching him. I’m sorry in advance.” She said after pointing to his staff shirt.  
  
“I’m sure I’ve had worse.” Remus gave a little shrug.  
  
“You don’t know my son.” She said as they walked into the pool, where Harry was peering over the edge near a few other kids. “I’m Lily by the way.”  
  
“R-John.” He caught himself as he had to from time to time at work.  
  
Lily raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. “Good luck with him. He’s going to be a treat.” She laughed before going over to sit with the rest of the parents.  
  
“All right everyone. I’m Mister John. I think its time to get started swimming but what’s the first thing we have to do before jumping into the pool?” He asked the gaggle of kids in front of the pool. Immediately five hands shot up in the air. At least the little things were enthusiastic.

***

Sirius paused the video, “Look at their pikes. Amazing. They were perfect together.” He cocked his head to the side as he studied the men’s form.  
  
“God, you’re in love with them. Can you just find someone else to jump with? Both of them are out of the game and have been for years.” James waved his hand at his best mate.  
  
“Why did Prewett have to move to bloody Canada?” Sirius pointed to the ginger on the screen.  
  
“That girl he married, I think. You know, people do funny things for love.”  
  
“I could stalk him. Bring him back, help him get the gold he was supposed to get.” Sirius gazed at the screen in the Potter’s living room. He really needed to find a new partner before he actually murdered Gilderoy. He had dreamt of diving with Prewett or Lupin since they became big names leading up to 2012.  
  
“He’s like a stay at home dad or some shite now. Which is totally cool, but he’s not coming back to England.”  
  
“Lupin…”  
  
“Lupin is a ghost and you know it.” James said as the front door opened. Sirius could hear Lily scolding Harry about something or another.  
  
“He didn’t just totally disappear.”  
  
“London’s a small town, and if he’s here, people would talk about it.”  
  
“People just forgot about him after his recovery. It happens all the time. Something tragic happens, everyone cares, and eventually most people stop caring because something else came up.” Sirius thought that was absolutely ridiculous because Remus Lupin was the best in the world.  
  
“Mister John!” Harry said pointing at the telly as he came trotting in fresh off his swim lesson, smelling of chlorine.  
  
“Huh? That’s Remus Lupin. The best bloody diver in the world, Haz.” Sirius lectured, hitting play and watching the rest of the dive as Lily came through the living room.  
  
“Okay, I’m not going mad. Yeah, Harry’s swim teacher is Remus Lupin.” Lily said completely nonchalant.  
  
Sirius dropped the remote and jumped up from the sofa. “You must be mad because he disappeared after his accident.”  
  
“Nope, he works at the sports centre. He got cagey when I asked his name, thought it was odd then I realized I’d seen him before, multiple times. On our telly or Sirius’ laptop or whatever.” Lily sunk down on sofa next to James, who was gaping at Lily. “Probably millions of times because you’re always watching his film.”  
  
“You should come meet Mister John. He’s super nice.” Harry smiled before going over to his toys. “He has a moon tattoo on his arm and it’s cool.”  
  
Sirius looked at James with wide eyes.  
  
“Sirius, you can’t ask this bloke to start diving again. He had major trauma.”  
  
“But he was so good, Jamie, the best in the world! He can’t waste it.”  
  
“You’re being selfish.” Lily said as she swiped to open her phone. “You just want to get rid of Lockhart and you care about yourself winning the gold.”  
  
“I am not being selfish, he’s wasting his talent being a ruddy swim instructor. He belongs on the platform.”  
  
“Stop.” James spoke firmly. “He’s not on the platform so he does not belong on the platform. You cannot make people do things they do not want to do because it makes you happy or it gets you something.”  
  
“He does seem sad.” Lily tapped away at her phone. “I mean, its sort of empty, isn’t it? Losing the thing you love to do and now you have to teach other people’s horrid kids how to do the back stroke.”  
  
“You can’t be telling him that he should actually do this.”  
  
“I’m just saying, maybe Remus wants to get back to diving but he’s been too scared and also hasn’t had the opportunity. But I don’t think you should go after him to do it.”  
  
“You make no sense.” Sirius accused her.  
  
“Just drop it, Padfoot.”

***

Remus stood on the edge of the platform and closed his eyes. He did this every so often: climb the ladder, take those shaky steps forward, and then close his eyes as he thought about just taking the leap. He only did it after the centre closed and he waited for his dad to finish up before heading home. He never actually took a step off. Some days he ached for the feeling of jumping off and slicing through the air into the pool. He missed he quiet other worldly feel of being under the water before emerging to the surface to the cheering crowd.  
  
He was sure that he could never do it. Remus would always end up feeling the panic swell up inside of his chest and he would make a careful climb back down the ladder.  
  
“Ready to get going, Remus?” Lyall asked when Remus got to the bottom of the ladder.  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“You can do it, you know? If you want to get back to it, you can.”  
  
Remus laughed. He dad was always suggesting that he just do it while his mum told him that he needed to stop putting himself in danger.  
  
“You only fell because your shoulder—”  
  
“I know, I fucked up because I shouldn’t have gone through with the handstand because my dodgy shoulder.” Remus snapped. “But I did and it happened.”  
  
“You deserve more than just being a swim instructor, that’s all I’m going to say.” Lyall shrugged as if he wasn’t always bringing it up. “Go change and let’s get home.”  
  
Remus listened because what else was he going to do?


	2. The Meat of the Existential Freakout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just realized, age wise of them being 20/21 that Harry wouldn’t be old enough for swim lessons. So Lily and James had Harry when they were teens. James finished school early and works for his dad. Lily run some fancy online lifestyle blog that’s super popular. IDK if I’ll ever mention that but I just wanted to point it out for backstory for no reason.

“Your point is bloody horrible. You’d think you had no classical ballet training in your background. Sure Mummy and Daddy would be appalled.” Lockhart complained as they were watching tape of their practice from the day before. Their coach, Kingsley Shacklebolt just rolled his eyes. Sirius was sure the man hated Gil as much as Sirius did.  
  
The diver bit his tongue. Lockhart was the one who had been blowing things when it came to competitions. Sirius needed to ditch him for a new partner soon, or he wasn’t going to make it to Rio, and that would kill him. He had never been able to compete growing up, so he missed London. Diving wasn’t an activity approved by the family because it wasn’t classical enough. Sirius loved it though and did it despite their protests. Though, he could never compete seriously when he was younger. But he was free from his family now, and all he wanted was to compete in 2016 for gold.   
  
To do that, he needed a new partner because he wasn’t going to be able to make the team diving alone since it was so stacked. Sirius didn’t have many options because all the good divers either weren’t interested in synchro or a partner already took them. Or they moved out of the country or disappeared off the face of the earth.  
  
“I think that’s enough for the day.” Kingsley shut his laptop. Before anyone could say another word, Gilderoy was off, leaving Sirius and Kingsley in the office alone. “We need to get you a new partner.”  
  
“Of fucking course we do.” Sirius fussed with his hair. “I can’t deal with him another week. He thinks he’s perfect and refuses to work any harder than he does now. I don’t understand how he got this far on his mediocre talent alone.”  
  
“I know,” Kingsley said firmly. “What about Gardner? He just dumped his partner.”  
  
“No, I worked with him before, and he’s an arsehole. There’s a reason no one ever sticks with him.” Sirius waved off the suggested before pinching the bridge of his nose. “I know where Remus Lupin is.” He had been sitting on the information for a few weeks, and it was actually killing him.  
  
His coach was silent for a moment. “I don’t know whether to be interested, scared, or both.”  
  
“I wasn’t looking for him. Harry started swim lessons and came home one day telling me the bloke I’m watching dive is his teacher. Then Lily confirms it's him.”  
  
Kingsley’s eyes went wide. “That would — he — he’s probably not even in good shape and his obstacles…”  
  
“We could talk to him.” Sirius was trying to get someone on his side about the situation. James didn't even want to entertain the idea of Sirius going down to the centre to look at Remus Lupin. Lily was wishy-washy on the whole thing that it was driving him a bit mad.  
  
“Maybe you should.” Kingsley nodded. “I mean, what could a conversation hurt?”  
  
Sirius grinned like a mad man. “You think?”  
  
“Go pick up Harry one day.”  
  
“James and Lily would never let me.”  
  
“That’s never stopped you before from just showing up.”  
  
Sirius bit the inside of his cheek. “You’re right. If they disown me for this, I’ll kill you.”  
  
Kingsley scoffed. “Good luck with that. Now get out of here.”  
  
He didn’t have to be told twice.  
  
Once Sirius gathered his things he decided to head over to the place where Lily brought Harry to swim. He was able to sweet talk his way to the pool area without being a member and find Lily sitting in some cushy seating area watching Harry. Sirius couldn’t get a good look at the man who was teaching the kids, but he was tall with a mop of curls on his head, he had no doubt that it was Lupin.  
  
“Sirius!” Lily hissed when she saw him.  
  
“Hi Lils, I just thought I’d stop in to take Harry to get some ice cream after. I owe him.” Sirius said with a wide smile as he took a seat next to her.  
  
“Liar. You can’t do this to the bloke. It’s just not on.” She gripped his shoulder. “James is going to murder you.”  
  
“You don’t know what he wants. Neither does James. Maybe no one has ever asked him, and he’s just floating on through life aimlessly. Who wants to teach kids how to swim?”  
  
“I’m sure there’s a lot of people.” Lily dropped her hand as she eyed the pool as Lupin was wrapping up the lesson.  “Promise me you’re not going just to blurt out that you need a new partner?”  
  
“No, I’m far smoother than that. I’ll figure something out.” He said, standing up as Harry bolted over to him. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do but he was Sirius Black, he could always figure it out.

***

Remus pretended to check the water once more before climbing out of the pool. The real reason he was loitering behind his swimmers was that Sirius Black, an up and comer in competitive diving, was standing on the pool deck talking to the rambunctious Harry Potter. There was no reason for Black to be there because Lily Potter was already waiting for her son. This was not going to be good.   
  
Remus took a deep breath and climbed out of the pool, heading right for his clipboard to make some notations on his swimmers and where they were at. He glanced out the corner of his eye to see Black and the Potters linger on the deck as everyone filtered out.  
  
“Mister John! Mister John! This is Padfoot. He’s my uncle!” Harry said, dragging Sirius Black over towards Remus.  
  
“Ah, hi, nice to meet you,” Remus said, putting his board down to shake Black’s hand.  
  
“Nice to meet you too.” The other man smiled far too much for him not to know. “Harry raves about you, so I had to come down to see how he was doing. Sadly, missed most of it because of my training.”  
  
“Oh, I see.” Remus didn’t take the training bait.  
  
“Has wants to be a competitive swimmer. The British Phelps, he says. Personally, I’m rather partial to diving.”  
  
“For Christ sakes,” Lily muttered. “This twat knows who you are Remus, and so don’t we. I’m sure most people do, but they’re polite, unlike Sirius Black.”  
  
“Lily.” Sirius looked a bit frightened.  
  
“I’m shocked Harry didn’t call me by the right name then. It’s been a couple of weeks.” Remus looked at the young boy who was wrapping himself up in a towel like a human burrito.  
  
“You want to be called John; that’s how you introduced yourself,” Harry said simply.  
  
“He kept correcting us when we talked about it.” Lily laughed.  
  
“Talked about it? So, you talked about me?” Remus bit his lip. “Umm, I have to get going.”  
  
“Remus, would you like to grab a coffee or something sometime soon?”  
  
The former diver wasn’t sure if Black was hitting on him or not by the tone of his voice. He decided that he didn’t want to know either way. “No, I’m busy. Sorry, Harry, Lily, I have to get going.” He gave them all a quick nod before hustling it back towards the employee area.  
  
When he got into the room, he collapsed onto the sofa and tried to take a few deep breaths. Remus hated thinking about the past and being face to face with the man who was his essential shoe-filler gave him a lot of emotions that weren’t great. He missed diving and everything that went along with it. But he couldn’t even jump off the platform when it was just him up there.  
  
“Hey, what’s up with you?” He heard Alice’s voice after a few moments of freaking out silently. She was his best mate and the one who helped get him the job even though he never taught anyone how to swim before.  
  
“Nothing, just confronted with the past.”  
  
“Oh, nothing then, yeah.” She scoffed before hopping on to the sofa next to him. “What’s the meat of the existential freakout?”  
  
“Sirius Black just walked in, and he wanted to get coffee.”  
  
“Maybe he was trying to pull.” She offered.  
  
“Maybe but he could also want to chat about what I’m doing with my life and why I’m not diving and all that lovely shite I don’t want to talk about.”  
  
“I see. You miss diving, right?”  
  
Remus just stayed silent.  
  
“Maybe this is a gift from the universe saying, ‘hey, Lupin, you’re fucking awesome. Please dive again. Hey, here’s Black, the perfect partner’.”  
  
Remus shook his head. “You’re ridiculous.”  
  
“I know I am.” She said simply. “But you should maybe think about getting back there. You’re still in shape, and I’m sure we can work out some schedule for you if you want to work here still. But Remus, I know you had a dream when you were a kid. You can still fulfill it.”  
  
Remus closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the back of the sofa again.

***

“You what?” James shouted after Lily had sold Sirius out when they returned home.  
  
“Look, he turned me down. I’ll leave him alone.” Sirius spoke as he surveyed the refrigerator for something to eat. “I have to get to that yoga class Kingsley wants me at. I’ll be by tomorrow for you to properly ring my neck.”  
  
“He wants it,” Lily said.  
  
“Evans, you are giving me the biggest mixed messages about this whole thing.” Sirius threw his hands up.  
  
“It’s just complicated. You don’t want to force someone who went through that trauma into it again but at the same time, it could be what he wants. I mean, I think he does want it. But is it good for him? I don’t know. He’s the one who has to decide.”  
  
“We’ll never know what he decides because we are going to leave the bloke alone,” James said. “Unless he comes to us.”  
  
Sirius agreed even though he wanted to show up at the sports centre every single day until Remus just changed his mind. But he had to stop because he didn’t want to be a terrible person who forced others into things. He was not his family.


	3. Just Proving a Point

Remus sat on the edge of the platform and looked down at the water. He just needed to jump, once, and maybe he could just keep doing it. Like falling off a bike and getting back on. Or getting bucked off a horse and eventually climbing up on the beast again. But Remus wondered if people in those analogies came close to almost being brain dead for the rest of their lives. Or if they happened to break their skull open on a world’s stage where nearly every country had access to the event and the images of what happened.  
  
“What’s the worst that could happen?”  
  
Remus startled at his dad’s voice echoing off the walls. “It could happen again. It could be worse. I could make a fool out of myself and just fail even if I don’t hurt myself.” He stared down at the dark blue water.  
  
“Okay, that’s all pretty shite, lad. But do you think that any of it will happen?”  
  
“It might,” Remus said as he heard his dad climbing the ladder. “You’re not going to be able to climb back down; you hate heights.”  
  
“I know that I do, but I can jump into the water. I just have to close my eyes.” He said, a little out of breath.  
  
Remus rolled his eyes. “Mum will kill you. Plus, it’s bloody freezing out. Your clothes—”  
  
“I have some more in my locker. Don’t you worry. Mum doesn’t have to know about this either.”  
  
“Dad, I know you’re just proving a point.” Remus shook his head.  
  
“Good.” He said after getting himself up on top of the platform. Remus could see the fear on his face that he was trying his best to mask.“I knew you were never daft as everyone said.” Lyall Lupin joined his son, sitting on the edge with their bare feet dangling over the water. “You seem more interested in going back than you usually are.”  
  
Remus shrugged. “Sirius Black’s nephew is one of my students. He came by one day, and I think he wanted to talk to me about working with him.”  
  
“Huh, that’s interesting. What’d you say?” His dad cocked an eyebrow.  
  
“I didn’t let him ask. I just told him I was too busy to chat.”  
  
“Then you left and had silently been having a crisis since? I’m going to guess it’s been about a week and a half?”  
  
Remus just pressed his lips together.  
  
“Never let it be said I don’t know my son, eh?” Lyall nudged Remus with his elbow.  
  
“I can’t even just jump in. How can I do any stunts? It’s the most important part of the sport.”  
  
“You don’t know if you don’t do it.”  
  
“It’s not that easy, though.”  
  
“I know it’s not.” Lyall put his hand on Remus’ shoulder. “I think you’re strong enough to do it, and that is what truly matters. Deep down, you know that you’re strong enough too.”  
  
“Am I, though? After it had happened I just fucked off and never looked back. When my coach asked me my plans when things settled, I told him I’d never get up on the diving board again. I cut off all ties to my old life, which I was a part of since I was a little boy.”  
  
“And here you are: lonely, sad, and bored. You’re on a board again, which you said would never happen. You get on the board nearly every day.”  
  
“But I never jump.”  
  
“Do you want to jump?”  
  
Remus silently nodded because it was all that he wanted. He just didn’t know if he could. He couldn’t bear it if it weren't like he remembered it.  
  
“If you want to go back to therapy or anything then we can figure it out. I just want you to be happy.”  
  
“Mum won’t be happy.”  
  
“She’s just scared because she knows how much it hurt you last time.”  
  
“Yeah, who could blame her for being scared.” He sighed.  
  
“It could be hard for all of us but whatever you do in the end is right. Plus, she’d support the heck out of you. Remember the shirts she had made for us with your face on them?”  
  
“God, so embarrassing. “Remus snickered.   
  
“Now, I’m going to jump. You can climb down. I’ll see you on the deck.” Lyall stood up, sucked in a deep breath and then took the leap.

***

“If you could just, I don’t know, bend a bit more—“  
  
“Fucking Christ, Gil, you’re an imbecile,” Sirius shouted, slapping his hand on the mat below him. They were practicing their aerials on dry land to refine their technique and such. But it just wasn’t working. Not that anything seemed to work with Sirius’ partner.  
  
“Sirius…” Kingsley warned.  
  
“No, I’m not doing this anymore. I won’t work with him. I’d rather try to break in alone and not make it than dive with you and crash and burn in trials because you’re so thick. We’ll never make it together.”  
  
“If you feel that way, then I’ll happily find someone else to work with. I’ll have you know that I have people knocking down my door to work with.” Lockhart said haughtily.  
  
“I’m sure you do.” Sirius deadpanned.  
  
“I would say see you at in Rio but I’m sure you won’t make the team at all.” Lockhart eased himself from his chair. “I’m off to find a new coach as well.”  
  
“Good luck with that.” Kingsley scratched his chin before flipping Gilderoy off as he walked out the door.  
  
“Good riddance.” Sirius rolled his eyes. “I know we’re stacked on individual but I honestly rather try that than work with him. I just can’t do it anymore.”  
  
“It’s fine. But I think we should try to find you a new partner. Lupin hasn’t randomly found you through Lily yet, has he?”  
  
Sirius frowned then shook his head. He had been holding out hope but as the days went on he had the feeling that it just wasn’t going to happen. “I think I’m going to give up on it.”  
  
“Well, it could happen. We have time; it’s not like we need to start getting on the map for a little bit now.”  
  
Sirius shrugged. “I guess you’re right.”  
  
“All right, off you go. Have a few pints to celebrate Lockhart finally leaving,” Kingsley grinned at him.  
  
Sirius decided to listen to the advice on Remus before heading to meet his brother, James, and a few others just to do as Kingsley said.

***

About less than a week later, Remus still hadn’t dived, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was getting worse than it had been in the past. He was staring off into space when Lily Potter came over to where he was standing with his clipboard. Harry was busy playing on his mum’s phone.  
  
“Re-John…” She glanced around to make sure no one heard her mistake.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Would you like to come by ours for lunch on Sunday? I know I appear to be a boring old housewife, but I promise you I’m not.” She held up her hands. Remus never really thought that about Lily. She was young and vibrant, rather funny too. “But really, Sirius is driving me mad. I can’t take it anymore. If you could just chat with him and turn him down for real while looking him in the eye, then that would be amazing. Also, my husband is a pretty great cook. If you like North Indian food, that is.”  
  
He raised an eyebrow at her, not too sure what to say to the invitation. Outside of Alice, Frank, and Dorcas, he didn’t have many friends. He didn’t want many friends. Remus certainly wasn’t invited to Sunday lunches at posh people’s homes.  
  
“I swear, I won’t speak to you after if that’s what you want. I feel odd just asking you to come by because we don’t know each other. But I think you’re an all right bloke and would probably get on with James — my husband. That’s all on top of the fact I’m going to kill Sirius if he talks about diving with you again.”  
  
“Um, okay? Would it be all right if I brought someone along with me?” Remus figured that wouldn’t be horribly awkward if he had a friend to tag along with him.  
  
“That’s fine with me. The more, the merrier, in the Potter household. That’s what I’m told at least.” She smiled before beckoning over Harry. “Haz, how would you like to Mister John to come by for lunch on Sunday?”  
  
The boy nearly dropped the phone in his mum’s phone as he hustled over to where the adults were standing. “Really? Are you going to come? So cool! Padfoot watches you all the time.”  
  
Remus felt himself blush a little. He’d be lying if he said that he didn’t find Sirius Black attractive. He knew that Sirius was watching his diving archives just like any good athlete would watch the best in the past, but it still made him blush a little.  
  
“I’ll be there,” Remus said with a nod to the boy.  
  
“Yes!!!” Harry jumped up and down. “Mum! Can I make cake for him?”  
  
“Maybe.” Lily Potter chuckled. “What’s your number?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I mention Remus with his clipboard a lot but I work for a rec center sort of place (which is very popular for families at least here in the states and a name of a song by the Village People) and I feel like everyone in the facility with is constantly carry around a clipboard.


	4. A Light Lunch and a High Dive

“Why are you dragging me out here to some posh bint’s house for lunch where you’re going to turn down some bloke who wants to dive? Isn’t it easier just to tell her no so she could tell him?” Dorcas complained, adjusting her jacket after they got off the bus.

“Because Alice and Frank were busy, and I am not bringing either of my parents,” Remus said. He had begged Dorcas to join him on the trip to Godric’s Hollow, a suburb right outside London. He didn’t want to go to what had the potential to be the most awkward lunch alone. He didn’t know much about the Potters and only what he knew of Sirius was from the press.

Most of what he knew about Sirius wasn’t exactly great information. He had a lot of problems with his prominent, rich family. From what Remus understood, he was thrown out of his house at seventeen and lived on the street for a bit. The reasoning was apparently his partying ways. Sirius kept quiet on it until recently opening up about being gay. That revelation was what provoked his parents to give him the boot. The most recent information on Sirius was that he dropped by his diving partner because Sirius was a diva. At least that was what Lockhart claimed.

“This is going to be bloody horrible.” She commented as they turned the corner to the street Lily said she lived on. “Look how quaint this all is.” Dorcas waved her hand around the charming little village.

“I understand how terribly quaint it is, but you might like these people. Lily isn’t bad, and the kid is a riot. James sounds like a good bloke and Sirius is—”

“Fucking gorgeous,” Dorcas said under her breath as she watched a girl with curly blonde hair saunter up to the house that was supposed to be the Potter’s. The woman was wearing a high waisted, a-line, pink skirt with a leather jacket topped with studs on the shoulders over a plain white top.

“That’s where we’re going,” Remus muttered.

“Shite.”

“Not that bad, eh?”

“Fuck off,” Dorcas said before they reached the fence around the beautifully manicured yard. The woman was turning to look at Dorcas and Remus as the front door opened.

“Great, you’re all here. Remus, this is Marlene. You must be Dorcas; Remus mentioned you’d be joining.” Lily stuck her hand out to Dorcas who was busy stealing looks at Marlene.

Dorcas shot her hand out to shake Lily’s before immediately offering it to Marlene. Remus did his best not to scoff as Lily moved so everyone could file into the house. “Just to let you know Sirius’ brother and his boyfriend are also joining us. It was last minute.” She made a face.

“Um, that’s fine.” Remus shrugged. It was wasn’t really because now Dorcas was lost on Marlene. The rest of them were mates. Remus was kicking himself for not just taking Sirius up on that offer of grabbing a coffee. It would have been easier to turn him down that way.

Lily led them through the house into the kitchen/dining room where the Potters and their friends were gathered. The Potter’s house was just decorated and felt like a home, warm and inviting. It wasn’t as stiff and so obviously rich as Remus thought it would be.

Lily introduced him to Regulus Black. He was about the same height as Sirius but had more of a weekend weight lifter’s physique than a diver’s. The younger Black also had short hair with a sharp undercut, where Sirius’ was long and falling down his back when it wasn’t up in a bun. Regulus also seemed more guarded and had what many would call a resting bitch face.

Regulus was sitting next to his boyfriend, Benjy Flitwick. Remus knew of Benjy as he was an up and coming Olympic swimmer at 18. He was expected to make team GB for the 400 IM.

The only people missing from the group were Sirius and Harry. “Haz and Sirius took the dog for a walk before we ate. He’s less of a brat when we do.” James explained.

“I think he means the dog, not our son.”

“Could be either.” Marlene smiled before glancing at Dorcas. “I love your headscarf by the way. Purple is my favorite color.”

Remus groaned internally.

“Thank you.” Dorcas took a seat next to her at the table.

“Mister John!” Harry came bolting into the room. “Mister John, I knew you’d come when we were gone.”

“It’s fine, Harry,” Sirius said, trailing in behind the kid. “I told you that he wasn’t going to leave before we got home at least.”

“You can call me Remus when we’re not at the pool, Harry,” Remus confirmed with the kid.

“Okay.” Harry bounced on his toes. “Do you want to see my toys?”

“Harry, we’re going to have lunch first. Maybe you can show him after.”

“Fine.” The boy pouted before sitting down in the chair next to Remus. “This is so cool!”

***

Sirius wasn’t exactly sure what to say when Lily had come home one day announcing that Lupin was coming for Sunday lunch. James looked a bit murderous but softened when Lily said Remus had friendship potential as well. Lily said she was sure that Remus was going to change his mind and want to dive, but they had to let him make his

At lunch, there wasn’t precisely the time to chat with Remus. Everyone was getting on, and when Remus wasn’t talking with the adults, he was being dragged around by Harry following their meal.

About an hour after eating, Sirius was out back having a cigarette. “You really shouldn’t be smoking. Not very healthy.”

Sirius snorted as Remus stepped outside. “I know, but I can’t do anything else fun.”

“I’m sure there’s plenty fun to be had without getting lung cancer and what not.” Remus shrugged. “So, ah, I came here for a reason, and the reason was not to get my friend a date with a cute girl.”

“I know that, but they are rather adorable together.” Sirius smiled when he thought about Marlene perking up whenever Dorcas paid her attention.

“True and now I’ll be making my way home alone. They’re going to dinner together.”

Sirius crushed his cigarette out in the ashtray on the table. “Of course, they are.”

“Honestly, though, I — I don’t think I can dive with you.”

“You know, I never actually asked?” Sirius raised an eyebrow.

“I know, but it makes sense. You show up at the pool looking eager and now you're partnerless…”

“I did want to ask, but you never gave me a chance.”

“I didn’t want to.”

Sirius stood up straighter. “Does that me you want to give me a chance now?”

“It means I want to, but I don’t think I can.” Remus bit his bottom lip. “You understand I haven’t dived since the accident, right? Even if I wanted to, I’m hardly in shape.”

“You look in good enough shape to me.” Sirius blurted out. “I mean, like, when I saw you at the pool. You’re in good shape. You just need to work on some things. We have time. If you want to do it, you can do it. You can win an Olympic medal, I swear. My coach is fantastic. You have so much natural talent. I don’t want to force you because of what happened but… yeah… you’re so good.”

Remus frowned and closed his eyes. “What happens if I fuck you and ruin your chances.”

“As of right now, I have no chances so I don’t think it would be that big of a deal.” Sirius said with hope.

“You can’t just assume that I’m going to get on the board and be just as I was.”

“Of course not.”

Remus was quiet for some time.

“Look, I’m going to the pool after this. I have the facility to myself on Sundays. Like, I have the key, and it’s just me this late in the afternoon. Why don’t I give you a ride home and on the way we can stop in there. You can check it out; you don’t have to dive or anything. I’ll show you what I got too.”

“A ride home is far more appealing than the bus.” Remus furrowed his brow. “But I’m not jumping.”

“I told you, you don’t have to even go closer to the platform than the seat you want to sit in.” Sirius held his hands up as if to show he wasn’t hiding anything.

Remus thought for another moment. “Fine.”

Sirius grinned before turning to head inside, “Let me grab my keys then."

***

Remus wasn’t sure how he ended up sitting in an empty pool, watching Sirius Black diving all by himself. Okay, not so true but it was still surreal. Dorcas found Marlene and ended up taking her to dinner. The Potters and Blacks and Benjy were all interesting. Somehow he let himself be convinced to get a ride home with Sirius and stop by where he dived.

Sirius form was nearly impeccable. Remus found critiques, but they were few and far between. The diver was graceful and timely. He fell into the water with such little splash. It felt like Remus was intruding on Sirius because the man was so focused. The facility was so quiet that Remus could only hear Sirius movements and splash aside from his breath.

The experience also made him feel an emptiness inside, that had been growing for some time now, bloom fully. It nearly hurt to watch and not be up on the platform with Sirius. Remus felt like he belonged up there with him.

“So, what’d you think?” Sirius asked as he walked over to Remus, who was sitting in the first row of the stands. “I think my pike needs the most work.”

“Yeah but it’s still good. It’s obvious why everyone is excited about you.”

Sirius shrugged, wringing out his hair after taking down from its bun. “I’ll change, and then we can get going.”

“You’re not going to ask if I want to dive with you?”

“Like I said, I’m not going to push it.” Sirius turned around and headed in the direction of the locker rooms. Remus was left sitting and staring at the platform.

Without much more thought, he kicked off his shoes, shucked off his jacket and shirt, and headed straight for the ladder. It was as if there was something physically pulling him on top of the board. Soon he was standing with his toes curling over the edge. Instead of looking down he looked straight ahead, took a deep breath, exhaled, and then took the plunge straight down.

It was as exhilarating and freeing as he remembered. When he hit the water, he sliced through with ease and was soon enjoying the feeling of being emerged.

When he broke the surface, Sirius was there grinning at him like he had just won gold. “So, how was it?”

“Brilliant,” Remus said, his heart pounding against his rib cage from the adrenaline. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so alive.

“So, you want to dive with me?”

Remus rubbed his eyes. “I think I do.” He was almost surprised with himself that he would just say it.

Sirius let out a loud whoop before fist pumping then cannonballing into the pool. Water splash around them and Remus couldn’t remember the time that he laughed so hard and just enjoyed life. He never wanted to lose the feeling again.

“I got a lot of work to do.” Remus reminded him once Sirius came to the surface. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”

“I’ve not doubt you’ll get through it just fine.” Sirius splashed him again. “Come on; I’ll find you some sweatpants I’m sure are laying around here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to update this a lttle sooner than I did but I've been dealing with hayfever (thanks, ragweed) so my head has been in the clouds. But hopefully I'll be able to do 2 chapters a week now that I'm pretty much past it and I have a week of time off between my camp job ending and college/fall job starting. I'm also working on another story that I thought of while driving the other day so I'll be working on that in between. I still am blocked on Married at First Sight but I hope that I'll finish it one day.


	5. I'm Not a Believer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to post this sooner but I've accomplished very little reading and writing this week because I have the worst cough. But I made it to the doctors and I'm on some medication to help clear it up so hopefully I'll finally be able to finish this sooner rather than later. Also, when I was writing it was for another work I'm a little consumed with and will probably start posting tomorrow as long as I'm feeling a bit better.

Remus found himself at Sirius’ training facility the morning following his dive back into the pool. Alice said she would cover for him at lessons, and his dad promised not to tell his mum just yet. He still wasn’t sure if he could do anything outside of a pencil dive off the platform. Remus wanted it so bad now that he could barely sleep Sunday night because he was so excited. But the only way to find out if he could compete again was to get on the board.

Before he could do that, though, he needed to meet with Sirius’ coach, Kingsley Shacklebolt. Remus and heard only good things about Shacklebolt. He was in high demand with divers in England.

“As I live and breathe, Remus Lupin.” Shacklebolt shook his hand after he entered the office with Sirius. “It’s nice to meet you finally.”

“You too.” Remus had nodded before the three men took their seats.

“I’m so happy that you’re reconsidering getting back on the board, mate. I know Sirius is too.”

“Yeah, ah, I know Sirius is.” He snickered. “He celebrated like he won the bloody gold last night.”

“I’ve no doubt that he did.” The coach paused. “So, I was chatting with some people, and the first thing we need to do is get some physical test done. Once you’re all cleared, if you’re ready, I’d like to start getting you back in Olympic shape. The sooner this is all set, the quicker we can put you in competitions.”

“Okay.” Remus took a deep breath, feeling his anxiety creeping back in. He was so excited since he stepped off the board, that he forgot to be anxious. Now, things were getting a little too real for him; he was going to do it though because it made him feel so happy. “So, what’s first?”

“We can get things started today if you want?”

“Yeah, let’s do it,” Remus said, taking the next hypothetical leap in his journey back to who he was before. He needed just to do it.

Remus knew that it was going to be a tough road ahead, especially mentally, but he needed to do it. If he didn’t do it now, he knew that he would end up looking back at his life and feeling full of regret. Life was shoving the opportunity in his face. Remus would be a fool for turning it down.

***

Two weeks after Remus confirmed that he was going to start diving again, Sirius found himself at the sports centre the other man worked at. Kingsley was also there with him. It was after hours, but it was the only way Remus would think about starting to dive. The days following Remus’ choice to dive again were filled with test after test for Remus. Sirius almost felt bad for him, but it revealed that Remus was in tip-top physical shape. There was nothing that would hold him back from becoming an elite diver again.

Following the tests, Remus and Kingsley worked on dry land on some moves. Easy ones, for the time being, just to ease the man into things. Remus still moved well, like he didn’t stop training for a day; which he really didn’t. Remus was always swimming laps, working out at the gym in the sports centre, and going to Dorcas’ yoga classes.

Now, all that was left was getting him to do the easy maneuvers off the platform. Kingsley wanted him to do a tuck, a tuck roll, open pike, and a closed pike before they moved on to any flips and twists. Once Remus could hit the beginner dives with ease along with the more complicated moves alone, Sirius was going to start diving with him. Except it seemed like it was going to take a long time for him to do so. For about fifteen minutes, Remus was pacing up and down the diving board.

“You don’t have to do it, Remus,” Sirius shouted up. He couldn’t take watching Remus balk much longer.

“I’m going to do it,” Remus replied with a wave of his hand. “Just, I need to stop thinking about it.”

“Take your time, Lupin.” Kingsley shrugged and leaned back to show that he wasn’t going anywhere.

Sirius tried to relaxed his body language, but he was so stressed out for Remus. “I’m going to call you Moony,” Sirius yelled up to his potential diving partner.

“What?” Remus looked down at him.

“Moony, you need a nickname and it’s Moony. You have that moon tattoo, and your name means Werewolf McWerewolf. So, you are now Moony. I’m Padfoot.”

The other man laughed and visibly relaxed a little bit. “Because you’re a dog?”

“A lovable one. James is Prongs that one is a bit harder to explain, but it has to do with a fork and our archenemy in school.”

“Tell me about it sometime.” Remus nodded and stood on the edge of the platform again.

Sirius was about to say something else, but he could feel something in the air shift, so he kept his mouth shut. He leaned forward in his seat and watched Remus hit a tuck. Then the other man climbed back up and did an open pike and then the closed pike. Without any prompting from Kingsley, Remus went up for the fourth time and executed a few somersaults before moving to a front flip.

“How is he so good when he hasn’t done any of this shite in years?” Sirius wondered.

“Pure, God-given talent.” Kingsley looked on in awe as Remus completed a 360, slicing through the water with a tiny splash.

“I’m not a believer but…” Sirius shook his head.

***

“So, standing invite to Sunday lunches, by the way. Marls is coming, and Dorcas is tagging along again tomorrow. Lily wanted me to let you know because I forgot to invite you last week.” Sirius said as Remus was getting his things together to head home. “Plus, if we’re going to be diving together, we should be spending a lot of time together.”

Remus pulled his hoodie on thinking about what he was going to tell his mum he was doing on a Sunday. It had been two weeks since he started lying to her about where he was spending all of his free time. She was sure that he had a new boyfriend or girlfriend that he didn’t want to tell her about yet. Remus hated lying to his mum, but he didn’t know how she was going to take it when he told her that he was going to start diving again.

Honestly, Remus wasn’t sure it was going to happen but after what he dived off the platform today, it gave him so much more confidence. There was no way that he wasn’t going to be competitive again.

“I’ll be there.”

“Brilliant. Lils will be very happy, Jamie too. He thinks you’re a future best mate or something.” Sirius commented as they started to make their way out.

Remus snorted a laugh. “Thanks for sticking around after I took so long getting going today.”

“Moony,” Sirius grinned as he said the new nickname, “You’re going to be great. You just needed to turn it on.”

“I’m trying.”

“You did today. Now it just has to be us becoming good together.” Sirius slung his arm around the taller man. “Want a ride home?”

“You don’t have to.” Remus didn’t want to take advantage of Sirius. Remus lived way out of the way from the posh flat which Remus had visited the other day.

“I don’t want my partner to sit on a bus for so long. Don’t worry about it, Moony. Let’s go.”

The ride home was pleasant as things always tended to be when Remus was with Sirius. It felt like they had known one another forever. That feeling was no doubt going to come in handy when they started to dive together. When he walked in the door is mum was waiting with a smirk like she knew something that Remus didn’t do it.

“So, who dropped you home? Nancy said they have a posh car. She saw you get out of it last night.”

“Mum, I’m not seeing anyone. It’s just a friend.” Remus went to the fridge in search of something to eat.

“Then what is it that you’re getting up to? It better not be anything stupid.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He waved her off. “I’m going out tomorrow for lunch.”

Hope Lupin looked at him skeptically before pushing him out of the way from the fridge. “I’ll give you another week before I start snooping.”

Remus hoped that he could find a way to break it to her before that would happen. He wasn’t looking forward to her reaction one bit. But he decided not to dwell on it because he had just dominated the platform for the first time in nearly three years.


	6. Not Enough Time

Four weeks into training all Remus wanted to do was fall asleep. But he couldn’t because he was teaching the kids how to do the backstroke and sleeping in that position would only lead to drowning. When he wasn’t working, Remus was spending all of his free time training. There weren’t enough hours in the day to work on Sirius on dry land and get some time in on the platform and on top of it go to work. Along with going to the gym or get in yoga sessions with Dorcas. He was waking up at 4 am and not getting home until close to eleven most nights.

“You look tired.” Lily frowned at Remus after everyone had climbed out of the pool and the parents and children began to disperse from the pool.

“I am.” He rubbed his face. “Bloody exhausted.”

“Maybe you need to focus on one thing?”

“I need money.” Remus glared at his new friend.

“I know that. Look, I have a lot now, but I didn’t grow up with money like James and Sirius did. If it weren’t for James’ parents, we’d have probably one of those tragic stories you see on telly about teens who have babies. We’re so lucky to have the Potters around. I’m sure they’d be there for you. Monty would probably sponsor you if you’re interested. You won’t have to worry about the money then, and you can focus on the training.”

“I don’t want handouts.” He said quickly. It was Remus’ instinct to reject any helping hand because he had far too much pride.

“I’m sure Monty can find you a job to do that will fit into your schedule. He’s like that. It wouldn’t just be a handout. Plus, you’re working, it’s just not something you’re getting money for yet. If you’re back to yourself, then you’ll be able to get sponsors that aren’t your diving partner’s adoptive parents.” She smiled at him.

Remus was tempted at the idea but giving over to it would mean officially telling his mother. He had managed to work around it, for now, saying that he was seeing the posh lad in the nice car, but no she could not meet him. When he told Sirius about this, he laughed far too hard at the situation. Not that Remus could blame him because how could someone like Sirius, want someone like Remus? It wasn’t as if Remus was ugly or anything. He was just average. But Sirius was something else, out of this world. They were in completely different leagues for more reasons than just looks as well.

“Well, the Potters are going to be at lunch Sunday, so maybe you should talk to him then. If you keep going like this, you’re not going to be able to perform at all and then what good was this all.” Lily frowned.

“If I did decide to go all out on this, I’d have to tell my mum,” Remus confessed to the redhead.

“You’re going to have to tell her eventually. Sirius says you’re doing amazing, and you two might even start competing soon.”

Remus shrugged. He was doing fantastic and working with Sirius was great. They were a perfect match. But he still got anxious, and there were more than a few times when he balked. He hoped that when he started to be competitive again, he could work through it, but that seemed like it was going to take a lot.

A few days later, Remus was stretched out on the sofa on Saturday morning. His body was aching from the workout he had the night before. It was a rare quiet moment in the last month that he had. “So, not out with your boyfriend this morning?” His mum sounded like she knew something Remus didn’t want her to know. That was never good.

“No.” Remus cracked open one eye to see his mum staring down at him with her arms folded across her. “What is it?”

“You’re diving again.”

Remus felt a little sick. “What?”

“Your father just let it slip by accident. You’ve been lying to me for two months? I can’t believe this, Remus. You swore that you would never dive again. How could you do this to us all over?” Her voice rose.

“Mum, I miss it. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but I knew you’d act like this.” Remus sat up, tucking his right leg under him.

“I can’t go through that again, Remus. I can’t watch you nearly kill yourself all the time.”

“It was an accident, and I probably could have avoided it but—”

“It happened. I will not let you dive again.” Hope said firmly, but Remus could hear the small waiver in her voice.

“Mum, I’m twenty, you can’t tell me what I can and cannot do anymore.”

“You’re under my roof.” She stood taller.

Remus’ heart sank, realizing that his mother was forcing him to do something he couldn’t dream of doing now. Maybe if it were a few weeks ago, he could change his mind. Now, though, he was completely back in love with the sport and working with the most amazing diver. No matter how much he struggled some days, diving still made him feel better than he had in three years. “I want to dive, mum.”

His mother blinked a few times and took a deep breath. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. “Then I can’t have you here. I can’t watch you do that to yourself again.”

***

Sirius rolled off his bed partner, trying to catch his breath. “I should get going.” The other man said as he started to get out of bed. “Thanks for last night… and this morning.” The man started to clean up and get dressed as Sirius began to drift off.

When the started to make his way out of the room, Sirius decided to grab his robe and follow him out, so that he could find his phone and make sure he didn’t have any messages before taking a nap. As his one-night stand opened the front door, Sirius heard him say, “Oi, I thought you didn’t have a boyfriend.”

“Ah, I don’t…” Sirius raised an eyebrow as he made his way towards the door. There, he found the man leaving and Remus Lupin stepping out of the way with luggage at his feet. “What’s wrong?”

“Mum found out I’m diving again and said I couldn't live at home if I’m going to compete.” The other diver rubbed an eye. “I don’t know where to go, so I was hoping I could maybe crash on your sofa until I found somewhere to live. I’d ask Marlene but—“

“Moony, you’re my partner, you’re staying here. I have an extra room, come on.” Sirius grabbed the larger of the two suitcases at Remus’ side. “Plus, living together could do our synchro some good.”

“Sirius, I can’t live with you.”

“Sure you can.” Sirius shook his head. “Plus, you’ll probably end up back home soon enough. I’m sure your mum will get over whatever it is she’s feeling and miss you like mad.” Sirius didn’t know the love of a mother until he was older. His biological mother wouldn’t care if he cracked his head open and then got on the board again. But if it happened when Effie was around, then she’d probably react like Mrs Lupin did. Eventually, she’d come around though and be in the stands cheering him on. Sirius had some faith that Remus’ mum would follow the same way.

“I told her I wouldn’t, and I am.”

“You’ve had a good relationship with her, right?” Sirius asked as they made their way into his apartment, towards the extra room.

“Yes.”

“She loves you. It will be fine,” Sirius assured him. “Just give her some time to adjust to it. I mean, it took you a little time to adjust to wanting to dive again. It must be hard.”

Remus was silent when they got into the spare bedroom. “I’m sorry if I interrupted anything back there.”

Sirius turned to see the diver’s cheeks pinked. “Oh, he was leaving. Don’t worry about it. Even if he wasn’t, this is more important than a shag.”

“Is he your boyfriend?”

Sirius scoffed, “I don’t have boyfriends. I don’t have the time or any extra energy to deal with it.” He waved his hand around.

“That can’t be true.”

“I’m just not the biggest fan of relationships.” Sirius sat on the end of the bed as Remus put his things in the corner of the room. “People need too much attention and all my attention goes to diving and my family.”

“Oh.”

“Do you have a significant other outside of me formally pretending to be your secret boyfriend?” Sirius raised an eyebrow. Sirius had got a kick out of it when Remus said that his cover to his mum was that they were dating. It was such a lame excuse that he couldn’t help but laugh at it.

“No.”

“What’s your excuse then? You were trying to be normal for the last few years. Isn’t that a so-called ‘normal’ thing to do, get a boyfriend or girlfriend?”

“Recovery wasn’t fun, and then I just didn’t put myself out to meet new people.” Remus flopped down on the bed.

“I’m sure someone will come along and sweep you off your feet.”

“Like you, I don’t know if I’ll have the time now but for the actual reason of having no free time.”

“I know, Lily was telling me how knackered you’ve been looking. I have to agree with her.” Sirius lied next to him, staring up at the ceiling. “Monty will sponsor you, and you won’t have to worry about money.”

“You think?”

“I know he will. The man is mad about me going after my dreams. If he thinks you’re the best option for me to get gold, then he’d do anything possible to make sure you’re healthy and happy.” Sirius said. “Talk to him tomorrow, I swear.”

“Fine.” Remus sounded a bit reluctant.

“Good.” Sirius paused for a beat. “Want to go to the pool?”

“Please.”

***

Remus and Sirius drove to the Potter’s with Sirius filling in the silence by singing along to the songs on the radio. Remus wasn’t exactly feeling himself after being all but kicked out of his parent’s house on Saturday morning. Now he was on his way to the Potters to ask for money from someone he didn’t know. He had come to the conclusion the night before that in order to compete in Rio in a year he was going to have to completely devote his life to diving. Every waking moment was going to have to go to preparing. Since his mum knew, there was no turning back.

“The Potters already love you, so you don’t have to worry about impressing them,” Sirius said as he parked the car. “James has gushed about you already to them to no end because that’s Jamie.”

“Oh okay, I hope it wasn’t about how I need money.”

“He probably mentioned how you need sponsorship, but there’s no way that it was all about that. James thinks you’re the best. So much so, I’m worried I’m no longer his best mate.” Sirius said with a cheeky grin.

Remus didn’t respond as he got out of the car and headed up to the front door of the Potter’s house, which flung open to reveal Harry bouncing up and down. Harry’s enthusiasm never seemed to waver, just like his father who was just as excitable. Remus had to wonder if the eldest Potter was the same as his son.

He wouldn’t have to wonder too long because no other but James’ dad was coming up behind Harry to scoop him up. “You must be Remus Lupin. It’s nice to meet you finally. I hear that you may be in search for a sponsorship.”

Remus blushed, but he was also thankful because then he wasn’t going to have to bring it up with the man. “James sold me out.”

“That’s my son. Come in, let’s talk.”


	7. The First Competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. I've been fighting this ridiculous cough for a month and also stepping into a new position at work at the same time as starting classes. So it hasn't been that fun lately. But I'm finally catching up, hopefully I'll start to feel better soon too.

Sirius watched Remus’s flawless entry into the water. He was running a little late to their morning practice so it seemed like Remus got started without him. Then again, Remus was always at the pool, with or without Sirius. It was now November and by February they had to be diving in the World Cup at Rio in order to receive qualification. They had missed the European championships in June but it wasn’t the end of the world because that was when Remus was making his choice to come out of retirement. Plus, if they were as good as Sirius thought they were, then it would be no problem at all to getting into the Olympics.

“When do we compete?” Sirius asked even though he knew the exact date but he just liked hearing it over and over again.

“Two weeks.” Kingsley said quickly, sounding a little annoyed with Sirius. “Competition in Glasgow. We’re all set to go.”

“Have you mentioned that to Remus yet?” Sirius asked as the diver swam towards the edge of the pool to climb out.

“Yeah, chatted with him this morning before you got in. He seems excited but nervous. Where the bloody hell were you by the way? Don’t you two live together still?” Remus moved in months ago now and never left. He was also avoiding contacting his mother, which upset Sirius a little bit. Sirius knew why the other man was angry with her but he could also see why Hope Lupin would feel the way that she did about it.

As much as he disliked the situation, Sirius loved living with Remus. His diving partner was clean, kept to himself, didn’t mind sharing cooking and cleaning duties, and enjoyed most of the crap telly Sirius indulged in. Sirius was sure that Remus was moving into ‘best mate’ status very quickly. Not that he was ever going to touch James’ position in his life but he really enjoyed Remus. In reality, if it weren’t for their diving partnership, he’d probably be trying to chat Remus up. But Kingsley would probably kill them if that happened so he steered far from that.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Yes we do, but I spent my night over a friend’s.”

“Friend’s, bullshite.” Kingsley scoffed. “Some weirdo you’re shagging?”

“He wasn’t a weirdo, he was nice.”

“Anyone who would shag you, is a weirdo.” Kingsley joked.

“I’ve met a couple of his shags, they are weirdos.” Remus said, toweling off his curls as they walked over to where Sirius and their coach were standing.

“Fuck off, the both of you.” Sirius huffed. “So, ready for Glasgow?”

“I think we’ll be okay.” Remus worried at his bottom lip. “As long as I don’t fuck up.”

“You’ll do great.” Sirius assured.

“Glasgow will be a good place for you to get some competition nerves out. It’s a small venue and not a lot of eyes will be on you.”

“Yeah, until the press gets wind that I’m signed up to compete.”

“It will be a good place to start off, I’m telling you.” Kingsley patted Remus on the shoulder. “Now, both of you, get your arses up on the platform and show me what we’re bringing with us to Glasgow, all right?”

Sirius grinned and took off with Remus right on his heels.

***

Remus stared up at the ceiling above his bed in Sirius’ house. Well, it was their house now and had been for almost six months now — even though his rent was being paid for by Fleamont Potter and the only thing Remus was doing was diving. Not that diving wasn’t a real job at the moment but it never felt like he was actually at work. It just still didn’t feel right, even though Fleamont insisted on Remus doing nothing but stick to diving and then after all was said and done, if Remus didn’t win anything at Rio, then he could work off the money that Fleamont leant him. For some reason, Remus didn’t believe that the man would ever let him pay him back.

“Moony, you doing anything tonight?” Sirius asked from the other side of the bedroom door.

“Nothing. You can come in.”

Sirius popped open the door and came right in, “Marlene called and asked if we wanted to go out with her and a couple others”

“I guess.” Remus gave a little shrug.

“Come on, Remus, you never have any fun. It’s all work and no play. It’s making you a dull boy.”

“Fuck off.” Remus sat up in his bed. “I’m so damn tired all the time from training.”

“Yes, but we have a free day tomorrow so let’s enjoy it!” Sirius said excitedly. “Come on, you soggy piece of toast. I’m sure you were fun once.” He jumped on to the edge of his bed. Remus felt his stomach do that funny thing it did when Sirius was close and they were alone. He had a stupid crush like a teenager on his diving partner and he hated it.

“I’m not sure if I ever was.” Remus said with a wry smile.

“I heard about you and Prewett’s pranks on other divers and shite. We should bring that back. I love a good prank, ask Jamie.”

“I’m sure you do. Effie and Lily told me what you two were like in school.”

Sirius beamed as if he was proud of his semi-delinquent past.

“Okay, I’ll go out but you have to promise that you’re not going to get me too drunk.”

“I swear.”

Two hours later, “Another round! How about more shots too?” Sirius jumped up from his chair.

“So much for not getting me drunk.” Remus yelled at his partner as a server came over with a drink. Which was odd because they didn’t have a server at their table in the bar.

“From the man at the bar.” She winked before setting it in front of Remus.

“Er, sure you don’t mean him?” Remus pointed at Sirius who was looking on with curiosity.

“No, he said you, with the dimples.” She smiled again before leaving.

“Damn, the one thing I don’t have going for me is dimples.” Sirius pouted at Marlene, Dorcas, Mary, and Pete who all laughed. Peter chucked a crumpled up napkin at Sirius.

“You don’t need anything else going for you.”

“Look at you, you never go out and now someone is buying you drinks. You should do this more often.” Marlene said, throwing her arm around Dorcas.

“Well, you deal with that and I’ll buy the rest of us drinks — and shots!” Sirius declared before taking off to the bar.

“Which one is it?” Remus didn’t want to look at the bar, in fear of what he might see. He had a tendency to attract some real odd balls.

“Oh, I think it’s him.” Dorcas said, nodding her head in the direction of the man with dark, tanned skin, and large brown eyes. “Wow, Remus.”

Remus wasn’t sure what to do. It had been so long since anyone was interested in him, or really since he had a mutual interest.

“Go talk to him.”

“And say what?” Remus glared at Mary.

“You’re fit, let’s shag.” Marlene offered.

“No.” Remus felt like he was frozen in his spot.

“If you don’t call him over or go over there, I’ll wave him down.” Marls looked at the man, who was now shuffling his feet and looking a little awkward.

“No.”

“Have it your way.” Marlene waved at the good looking man obnoxiously. The man glanced up and blushed at Marlene’s display.

“Oh god, he’s coming over.” Remus put a hand over his face as the man walked over to the table.

“Good.” Dorcas chirped. “Hi, hun.”

“Um, hi, I hope I didn’t make a mistake…”

“No, this is Remus, he’s just shy.” Marlene threw an arm around Remus’ waist. “And you are?”

“I’m Oscar.” He smiled. “It’s nice to meet you and your mates.”

Remus decided if you couldn’t act on his horribly annoying crush on Sirius, Oscar wasn’t such a bad way to fill a little time. “I’m glad they didn’t scare you.”

“It take a lot more.”

***

Sirius couldn’t help but notice Remus was missing from their hotel room the morning of their first competition. He would think that Remus was with that bloke Oscar, who was recently occupying his free time, but Oscar had work and Remus didn’t want him around anyway because of how stressed out he was.

As the date of the competition grew closer, Remus was getting more anxious. The other man tried to play it off but it was completely obvious. He was balking more and being more quiet during training. He wasn’t messing up on dives though, at least not tremendously, it was just hard to get him off the platform some days. Sirius was starting to regret asking him to come back. But when things worked, things worked perfectly.

Sirius threw back his covers and grabbed some pants and a sweatshirt before getting his bag and heading out of the hotel. He had a feeling that he would find Remus at the pool because that was where he always went. It was like that was the only place he knew. Even when he wasn’t diving, completely out of the sport, he worked at a pool.

“We’re a little early.” Sirius said when he found Remus sitting in the stands.

“I thought I didn’t wake you.”

“You didn’t, I don’t think so at least but I got up and my diving partner was MIA. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t run off on me.”

“Of course I didn’t. I’m not an arse.” Remus sighed. “I’ve never been to a competition where my parents didn’t come and— I don’t know — it’s just a lot.”

“Why didn’t you just call your mum? I know she’s contacted you.” Sirius said. He had seen her name pop up on caller ID a few times.

“She’s just trying to get me to stop.”

“How do you even know? I saw you delete the voicemail without listening to it.”

Remus gave him a knowing look. “I just do, that’s how my mum is. She’s over protective.”

“Maybe she wanted to be here. You should try talking to her.”

Remus just shook his head. “I’m sorry ahead of time if this is all shite.”

“We’ll be great. You’re just nervous because you haven’t been in front of a crowd in a long time. It’s going to go great.”

“You’re a good partner, you know? How come everything I read about you before, said you were shite?”

“People think I’m a diva.” Sirius flashed him a smile.

“You are.” Remus laughed.

“You just seem to handle me well. Maybe we balance each other out.” Sirius reached out and squeezed Remus’ knee. “We’ll be fine, it will just be us up there. Just like practice. Fuck what everyone else thinks and who cares if you fuck up. We got it.”

***

Remus’ ears were ringing so loud, that he didn’t hear Sirius ask if he were ready. He just saw the other man’s lips moving so he nodded, assuming Sirius was asking if he were ready or if he was okay. The answer to both was really no but he needed the answer to be yes. For months he was working on diving. It was a secret from the media. Only his friends and family knew. But now, everyone was going to know that the bloke who had a tragic accident was trying to be an Olympian again in a ridiculous amount of time.

As they walked to the end of the platform Remus could feel his knees quaking. All he had to do was dive. He was good at it, they had been woking for months in private to showcase it but now all eyes were on them and Remus was missing 2 pairs of eyes the most. He should have given in and talked to his parents but he was so bitter that he mum kicked him out, if he knew her reasoning.

“I can’t do this.” Remus whispered, not sure if Sirius could hear him because he couldn’t hear a thing with the ringing and now he was dizzy. He wanted to take a step back from the end of the platform but he couldn’t move.

“Deep breath, Moony, I’m right here.” Sirius looked over at him with a smile. “Deep breath, we got this, we’re so good, we’re going to blow them all out of the water.” Sirius winked.

Remus took a few shaky breaths.

“Take your time. Tell me when to go. You count. We got this. It’s just us and Kingsley.”

Remus closed his eyes and tried to imagine them all in the training facility together. He knew he was good, he could be the best again if he just could start taking off on the platform in competitions. Now was his chance. He took another deep breath and opened his eyes, glancing over at Sirius before turning his back to the wall in front of him, “On one, two, three—”

And they were off.


	8. Olympic Qualifying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On bedrest for three days aka five because the weekend so I'm going to have so much time to write and post between the small amount of work and homework I have to do. It sucks but what can I do.

_Remus Lupin and Sirius Black are surprise contenders for Team GB’s synchronized platform diving. They’ve been training together for less than a year, and Lupin has been back to diving for just that long. They’re now off to the World Cup in Rio, where they will be competing for a spot in the Olympics. At the moment the men are considered only in the top twenty, but looking at the numbers, that’s good enough to make it to the Olympics._

_All though Team Great Britain is strong individually, on the synchronized platform event, they lack greatly. But at twenty, the men don’t have much of a chance in making the medals stand._

_Lupin is still hesitant on the platform. He’s only been back in competition since November. That’s just three months. He looks to be a shell of what he used to be. He was heavily favored to be on the medal stand twice in London. But that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now unless some miracle happens now._

***

“Fuck Rita Skeeter.” Sirius clicked angrily out of the article James had up on his laptop. “Why are you reading this shite? It’s like a gossip blog for sports. She’s the shittiest writer on the face of the planet. Why do this to yourself?.”

“I like to know what everyone is saying about my friends.”

“She hates Remus and me. She loves Lockhart.”

“Where is Remus, by the way?”

“With Oscar, whom he is breaking up with as we speak,” Sirius said with a small smile. Since the two had started dating about three months ago, Remus had been spending so much time with the man. When he wasn’t at the pool or gym, Remus was with Oscar.

“Thank God. You’re so jealous of him.” James complained.

“I am not!”

“Please Sirius, I’ve known you for most of our lives. I know when you’re pining away for someone. You’ve had it bad for Moony since you met him. Since before you met him. It just got worse since you’ve got close. You just don’t want to admit it.”

Sirius didn’t want to admit it for multiple reasons. He hated the idea of being in a serious relationship. Except he found himself thinking about it more and more with Remus. They were living a happy domestic life and worked well together. They were partners in almost every sense of the word. Except, they weren’t snogging or doing any of that lovely physical stuff. Sirius wished that they were most days, even when Remus was annoying for one reason or another. But he liked the friendship and the professional relationship than he wanted to risk both of them for something with a little more physicality.

“I just don’t like Oscar. He’s a twat.”

“He’s a nice guy,” James said.

“You think everyone is nice.”

“No, I don’t.”

“You thought Snape was nice.”

“At first, then he turned out to be a twat.”

“You do that with everyone.”

“Fine, tell me how Oscar is twattish, then.” James sat back in his chair.

Sirius felt like he was floundering for a moment.

“Exactly, you’re just jealous, and you have been for months now.”

“Fine, you’re right, happy? It’s not like I’m going to do anything about it. Kingsley would have my bollocks and who knows how it would effect our diving.”

“Maybe after Rio?”

“Maybe not ever.”

“If you want a relationship, you can have one. Not all of them are horribly toxic, you know?”

“I know,” Sirius said and waved his hand.

“Then think about asking Remus on a date after it all.”

“Yeah, I’ll think about it,” Sirius said, not sure if he’d actually follow through with it.

***

Remus was at the stove making eggs when he saw his phone ringing on the table, the word MUM in clear letters on the screen. “Answer it,” Sirius said from his spot near the phone. They were having breakfast before heading off to catch their flight to Rio.

“No.”

“Stop being so bloody stubborn. Your mother is calling you, answer the damn phone.” Sirius picked up the phone. He jumped out of his seat and shoved it in Remus’ face. “Do it.”

He missed his mum so much, but his stubbornness and passive aggressive nature tended to get the best of him. “Fine. Just to shut you up.” He took the phone from Sirius’ hand.

Remus took the phone and tapped the answer button. “Ah, hi.”

“Oh, you’ve finally answered.” His mum chirped.

“Mum…”

She huffed a breath. “Remus Lupin, I’m very upset with you. I understand how I made you chose was horrid but I love you. You’re going to come home now—”

“Mum, I can’t.”

She paused, “What do you mean you can’t?”

He laughed. “I have a flight to Rio.”

“Oh… Well, when you get back and when you’re there, you’re going to call me daily. I want to know how you’re doing and how it’s going. I refuse to miss any more competitions, even if you’re going to send me to an early grave.”

Remus sat down in a chair as Sirius moved to take the eggs off the stovetop. “So, that’s it? We’re not fighting anymore?”

“I’m a terrible mother, so that’s up to you.”

Remus chuckled and shook his head. “You’re just a mother, not horrible.”

“I’ve felt it for the last few months.”

“It’s not like I don’t get why you reacted like you did.” Remus bit his lip. “I mean, I didn’t even want to talk to Sirius because I knew he was going to ask me to dive.”

“I know, I’m still sorry.”

“You can show me how sorry you are by going to Rio if we make it.”

“I’m sure you’ll make the team, love. I’ve been reading about you and watching videos online, and you look just as good as before. You’re amazing.”

Remus grinned, “I hope you’re right.”

“So, anything else going on I should know about?”

“Well, I had a boyfriend and broke up with him in the time we weren’t talking.”

“Why’d you break up? It wasn’t Sirius was it?”

“No, mum, I was never actually dating Sirius,” Remus said, and Sirius made a funny noise after he sat down with a plate. “I am living with him, but we’re not together.”

“I see.” She had that tone of knowing something Remus didn’t, but Remus decided not to press.

“What about you? What’s been going on since I’ve left?”

With that Remus was filled in on the lives of all of his former neighbors while he ate and then got ready for his flight. It wasn’t until he was at the airport, that he got off the phone with his mum. He loved her so much that he didn’t realize how much his missed her endless chatting about things he didn’t actually need to know about.

“Told you she loved you,” Sirius said as they waited in the security line.

“I knew she always loved me. It’s just. It’s complicated.”

“Well, I’ll protect her baby boy the best I can.” Sirius hip checked him. “I can see if Monty could maybe get her a flight out if you want.”

“No, it’s fine.” Remus shook his head. “I’d rather not have her anxiety on top of mine right now.” Even though Remus had made great improvements of not freaking out on the platform during competition, the high stakes were eating away at him. He wanted to do well to prove it to himself that he could it as well as the critics who were saying that he was jumping back into it far too fast. Remus also didn’t want to let Sirius down, who was still holding on to the belief that Remus was his ticket to a medal.

“We’ll do great. You’ll do great.” Sirius said like a mantra.

***

Remus and Sirius didn't have a chance to see Rio at all. They went from the airport to the hotel to the pool and back. They ate dinner close by to the hotel. Everything they did had to do with the diving, which Sirius understood but he wanted to have some fun and see the city. He hoped that they’d be able to come back for him to do so.

“I’m so bored,” Sirius said, flopping down onto Remus’ bed next to him.

“That’s nice.” The other man said before turning a page in his book. “We have got the competition tomorrow, and we’re not going to be out having fun tonight. Also, we’re supposed to be in bed in ten minutes.”

“Ugh, I know.” Sirius grabbed Remus’ book out of his hand and tossed it aside. “Are you doing okay?”

“I’d be better if you didn’t just lose my spot in the book you just took out of my hands because you demand attention like a child.”

Sirius propped his head up on his hand to look over at Remus. “You’re on page 57. I made sure I looked before doing it. I don’t want you to actually kill me.”

“If I killed you I wouldn’t have a diving partner.” Remus almost sounded happy about that.

“Honestly, are you all right?”

“I’m terrified,” Remus said honestly. “But what’s new?”

“I did the right thing, right? Asking you to come back?” Sirius wondered out loud, not for the first time either.

“I guess. It’s good most of the time. It’s just not so great right now.”

“Mmm, sorry.” Sirius sighed. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“A cuppa and a cuddle,” Remus said, closing his eyes.

I can do that!” Sirius bounced out of bed.

“Sirius, I was just kidding —“ The diver sat up.

“If it’s going to help you relax and help us tomorrow in any way then it’s perfect,” Sirius said, going over to the dodgy kettle that Kingsley had purchased for them the other day because Sirius complained about making tea via the coffee maker.

“It’s a little weird,” Remus said, and Sirius turned his back to hide whatever look came across his face. He wondered what was wrong with him that Remus didn’t want to think about cuddling with him. Not that, that was what he said but in Sirius’ mind, that was what he heard.

“People have done stranger things.” Sirius reminded his partner. “A cuddle isn’t strange.” He clicked the kettle on after checking it had enough water.

“I’ll take the tea,” Remus said. “But we’ll see about the cuddle, even though it might be a good idea…”

***

Remus woke up, curled around another warm body. He cracked his eye open to be treated with black hair in his face. When he mentioned a cuddle with a cuppa, it was off handed, and he didn’t actually think Sirius would be so eager to give into it. But the other diver was determined to do anything to get to the Olympics, so a cuddle wasn’t too bad. Well, the cuddling was actually really nice. So nice, Remus could feel a very awkward situation coming on so he moved away from Sirius before the other man could feel Remus’ morning erection.

“Is it time to get up?” Sirius asked through a sleep thickened voice, not moving, though.

“About five more minutes.”

“Good.” Sirius yawned. “Wake me up in ten.”

Remus scoffed before getting out of bed and going through his morning routine. By the time he was nearly ready, Sirius was out of bed and getting himself together. Once they were done, they went off for breakfast where they met Kingsley. Remus was doing his best to ignore the nausea while he forced down some food and Kingsley gave them a run down of what was ahead of them. They just had qualifications today and then semis and finals the day after.

Remus knew once he got started, things were never so bad but at every competition, and some mornings at practice, it was the very first dive that was always the hardest. At least they had multiple chances to prove themselves but if he completely balked one dive and got them an unbelievably low score then there was probably no coming back from it. After all of their hard work, he couldn’t imagine doing that to Sirius when they were so damn close.

They made it to the pool and did their usual warm-ups. They talked to their physiotherapist and Kingsley. Then it was time to start. Remus was thankful that they were diving fourth so he wouldn’t have to wait around too long to get the first one down. It still felt like an awfully long wait, though. The whole time Sirius was trying to keep it light, as he always did. He did embarrassing dances and sung along obnoxiously to whatever came on at the arena or whatever he was listening to on his headphones.

Finally, it was time for them to make their first dive. Remus made his way up, trying to focus on his breathing, ignoring the noise of the crowd. “It’s an easy one, we do this all the time and nail it,” Sirius said as they started to walk out on the platform. “Want to count off?”

“Give me a second.”

“You’ve got all the time in the world.”

They didn’t because if they didn’t start within so many seconds, then they would be penalized. But Remus, again, tried to put that out of his mind. He visualized the dive they were going to do and how in synch they were going to be through the whole thing. “Okay.”

“Ready?”

“On one, two, three,” Remus followed through with the dive, not really remembering it at all but when they were under water Sirius gave him the thumbs up, meaning it was probably pretty good. He only hoped the rest of the competition could go that way.


	9. Off to Rio

Following a decent showing at the World Cup in Rio, Remus and Sirius got the call that they were going to be headed to the Olympics. Sirius couldn’t tell anyone exactly what happened the night they got the call, but somehow they ended up in bed together without shirts on. Neither of them had mentioned it, and they went on with their lives like there wasn’t any sexual tension between them. Or what Remus hoped was sexual tension. Not that it mattered because he had more important things to worry about, like winning a gold medal.

Even though they did well in the World Cup, they didn’t do well enough to get on the medals stand. It was just enough for them to qualify; literally, they were eighth out of eight teams. But they had a few months before they headed back to Rio to perfect everything and they were doing just that. Sirius was starting to spend just as much time at the pool as Remus was. They were also catching each other being in synch from time to time, which was funny but also a very good thing.

“Okay, so everyone is going to get to Rio the day before the opening ceremony,” Monty said to the Lupin/Black cheering section that was sat in a private dining room at a restaurant the Potter’s owned. The group consisted of Effie, James, Lily, Harry, Marlene, Dorcas, Hope, Lyall, Pete, Regulus, and Mary. Alice and Frank couldn’t make it, which was sad because Sirius liked them quite a bit when they came out with their friends. Benjy wasn’t there because he was too busy getting ready for Rio himself. He had qualified for the 400 IM, so Regulus had a few things to look forward to.

“I’ve got our accommodations all taken care of. The boys will, of course, be in the athlete’s village, at least until their competition is over, which is in the first few days. So after that, we’ll have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves.” Everyone had taken the full two weeks to have fun at the games and explore Brazil with Remus and Sirius. Hopefully, they were going to be doing some celebrating.

In the months following the World Cup, they improved by leaps and bounds on their dives. There weren’t too many competitions going on so it was hard to measure themselves to the elite divers of the world but Kingsley was sure they were right up there. There was now only a week left before the Olympics opened and they were in overdrive. They were going to leave for Rio in only two days, and competition began in eleven days.

“Are you ready?” Marlene asked Remus as everyone went to enjoying their desserts.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“No handstands, so you’re fine.” Remus’ dad joked, and his mum hit him in the shoulder.

“That’s a horrible joke,” Hope complained.

“It was just a joke, mum. Plus, he’s right, no handstands.” Remus rolled his eyes.

Remus was equal parts terrified and excited when it came to diving in the Olympics. But it was always like that since he started back diving. “I really am ready, though.”

“Good.” Hope smiled. “We’re all so excited for you.”

He was so happy that the relationship with his mum was patched up. He hated not having her in his life those months because she was always his biggest support system. With his mum back in his life, things did seem a little easier. Well, everything that wasn’t her wanting Remus to date, Sirius. She was absolutely convinced they’d make an excellent pair.

“Sirius, love, are you excited?” Hope asked Sirius.

“Of course I am.”

“I doubt it will be as good as being in London and participating but it’s going to be brilliant,” Remus said.

“Of course it’s going to be brilliant, any chance to represent your country and be recognized as some of the best in the world, its brilliant. Not to mention you’ve barely been back in diving a year. You’re a marvel.” Sirius said, and Remus felt his cheeks pink.

“You’re so supportive, Sirius.” Remus’ mum said with a twinkle in her eye. “Why don’t you have a boyfriend again?”

“Ah, time, and stuff.”

“Mum, leave him alone.” Remus snickered.

“I’m just wondering. He’s handsome and such a nice boy. Maybe I should set him up with someone.”

“No, thank you.” Sirius waved a hand in front of him. “I’m fine.”

“Let’s just worry about diving. We don’t have time for dating.” Remus said and ran a hand through his hair.

“Fine, but after—“

“Yes, after,” Remus said quickly. “Now, what are we going to do for sightseeing?” He changed the subject quickly.

***

“That was bloody awesome.” Remus flopped down on his bed in their room in the Olympic village. They had just gone to the Opening Ceremonies, which was something Remus wouldn’t forget. He enjoyed it more than London, only because he was older and felt like he knew he needed to take it all in and how to do it.

Sirius nodded as tried to find something else to put his attention on. He was trying his best to avoid looking at Remus on a bed because thoughts of Remus on a bed were apparently too much for him. Somehow he was a teenager again, and everything Remus Lupin did was a turn on. He was counting the days until they were done with diving because he was about to die over the fact that he wanted Remus so bad. He was going to hold it in though because Sirius wanted that gold medal more than anything at the moment. Remus could wait. There was no way he was going to ruin their dynamic.

“Brazil really knows how to party. We really should think about enjoying some of it when we’re done.” Remus suggested.

Sirius bit his lip because the last time they got drunk and partied together ended up with both of them in bed half naked. “Yeah, sure.”

“Are you okay, mate?” Remus questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m fine, why?” Sirius took a seat on his bed, finally.

“Don’t know, you’re off. Jet lag? Nervous? It’s my job to be nervous.” Remus laughed softly.

“No, it’s fine. Just tired, I think.” Sirius shrugged. “We should get to sleep. Kingsley wants us ready to go early for some practice.”

“Okay.” Remus rubbed his eyes. “I just don’t think you’re okay.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“So, there is something.” Remus looked at him with concern.

“It’s honestly nothing to worry about. If we worry about it, then it might bother our diving, and I don’t want that.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I swear. It’s nothing horrible.” Sirius held a hand over his heart. “I swear, I’ll tell you after this is all done. You’ll probably laugh at me about it.”

“I’m sure I won’t.”

“You might.”

“We’ll see.” Remus stretched out on his bed. “Let’s get through the next few days. I can’t wait for Monday. I just want to do this.”

“We’ll be brilliant. You’re brilliant.”

“I think we’re both equally brilliant.” Remus got out of his bed to start getting ready for bed. “Remember, you have to tell me after we finish. Win or lose I want to know.”

“You’ll know,” Sirius said firmly because he wasn’t sure if he could possibly contain himself for much longer if he didn’t tell Remus that he fancied him so much.

Living with him and working with him was almost unbearable when all he wanted to do was snog the other diver’s face off. It was getting worse every day. Then it didn’t help with Hope tried her hardest to set Sirius up with someone whenever she was around. She wouldn’t shut up about how great he was. But in reality, all he wanted was her son.

***

Remus balked. He hadn’t balked in months, and he balked on the biggest stage. All he could think about was what happened to him the last time he was at this point. It got too deep into his head, and he couldn’t let himself get off the platform. “Fuck, fuck I’m so sorry.” He tried to calm himself down as Sirius came back up on the platform. The other diver had taken off without him. “We’re done.”

“We’re not done, Remus, it could be worse,” Sirius assured him. “We can still do it. We just have to be amazing and we can. We get another go because you balked.”

“But we’re penalized.”

“I know. So, we have to do this perfect.”

Remus took another deep breath in. “Okay.”

“Count it off. You got it.” Sirius patted him on the back. “Come on.”

They walked out to the edge of the platform, and Remus closed his eyes. “One. Two. Three.” This time, he didn’t stall, he followed Sirius all the way into the water, hitting each maneuver like it was second nature. It was second nature to him now.

“Let’s keep doing that,” Sirius said as they watched their scores come up. Even with the balk, they weren’t in last place, to Remus’ amazement. “We can do it.”


	10. And the Gold Goes to...

With only tenths of a point separating the top four going into the final dive, Remus and Sirius had to be perfect. They had got so far and to blow it now would destroy Remus, he thought. The pressure was weighing on his anxiety, but he had to push it aside for one more dive. The steps up to the platform seemed steep and endless as his legs felt like they weighed a ton.

“One more time, Remus, that’s it,” Sirius said with a crooked grin as they got to the top of the stairs. “After, we can go party.”

“Unless we lose and then we can wallow.” Remus shrugged.

“Not the frame of mind we need right now.” Sirius reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “You count us down.” They stayed where they were because it was the dive they needed a running start for. Remus hated it because he was going in blind but it was their highest difficultly, and they also did a decent job at it. The American’s and Chinese’s dives were a bit less difficult, so if they could pull it off, then they could at least make the podium.

“Okay.” Remus took a deep breath but didn’t hesitate to go because he just wanted to get it over with. “One, two, three.”

In seconds it was all over, and he was breaking the surface of the water, and the crowd was deafening. Remus squinted up to see their cheering section going out of their minds, waving Union Jacks and signs that were all equally embarrassing. “Bloody brilliant,” Sirius said as they swam to the steps. “Fucking — that was the best we’ve ever done I think.” Sirius was always so mindful of their dives when Remus just tended to lose himself in the movement and let his body take him where it needed to go.

For the next minute and a half, Remus paced the pool deck, waiting for their scores to come up on the screen. Sirius was standing, staring at the board like it was going to have all of the answers in the world. Remus chewed on his bottom lip and stared at the tile beneath his feet. He couldn’t believe how far he had come, even if they didn’t make it onto the podium. Even in just this competition, they were near the bottom and were right in medal contention.

“Holy shite! Bleeding Jesus on a purple bike!” Sirius screamed and all but tackled Remus. “We’re on top. We’re on top.”

“But we have to wait for—”

“I know but!” Sirius pulled back and jumped up and down. “This can happen. This can happen.” Sirius said, breathing heavily.

The next fifteen minutes were the longest minutes in Remus Lupin’s life. He couldn’t sit still. He felt like his heart was going to pound out of his chest. It was worse than the anxiety he got up on the platform because he had no control over the other divers. America and China were numbers one, and two in the world, and Brazil was fourth. He and Sirius were 8th in the world going in. He couldn’t believe that they even had a real chance.

First, the Brazilians went, and they were good but not good enough. Too much splash. They were into third. Then the Americans. They were as synchronized as they should have been, as Remus and Sirius were. They slotted themselves into second place. Then, the Chinese. The best in the bloody world. But even the best can’t be perfect all the time.

“We did. WE DID. REMUS!” Sirius jumped on top of him again. “I knew we could do it. Gold baby!”

Remus felt like he was on another planet. He couldn’t believe it. He was officially an Olympic gold medalist. He had overcome so much to be where he was, and he couldn’t be more thankful for the little boy who ran past him one morning and his red headed mum who struck up a conversation.

***

Sirius was buzzing from adrenaline and alcohol. He felt like he could run from the pool all the way to the athlete’s village. “I can’t believe did it,” Sirius said as he spilled into the car that was meant to take them back to the village.

“That’s the millionth time you said it. I thought you were the one with so much faith in us.” Remus laughed as the car started to drive off.

“Yeah, well, someone had to hold it together.” Sirius waved a hand in Remus’ face. “Let’s go out.”

“We were just out,” Remus said before taking a long drink from his water bottle.

“I want to dance! Let’s go dancing.” Sirius said before clambering up to the partition and knocking.

“What are you doing?” Remus laughed, and his hand came to rest on Sirius’ calf.

“Excuse me, do you speak English?” Sirius asked in his best Portuguese to the lady driving.

“Yes.” She chuckled. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Where is there a super gay party that we can go to?”

She laughed again. “I was told to take you right back.”

“Yes, well, fuck that,” Sirius said. “We’re gold medalist, you know? And I want to dance, a lot, with very good looking Brazilian men and my partner.”

“Well, I guess… I won’t get in trouble will I?”

“No, I might, but you’re fine.”

“Sure.” She said. “I know somewhere that’s not too far from the village, so that should be okay.”

“Brilliant! Take us away.” Sirius kissed her on the cheek before moving back to his seat.

“I hope you don’t get her in trouble.” Remus snickered as the partition went back up. “So, you want to dance with good looking Brazilian men?”

“And you, of course.”

“Of course.”

It didn’t take long to get the club that the driver wanted to take them to. She waited outside for them to leave whenever they wanted, and Sirius promised her the largest tip she had ever seen in her entire life when they got out.

Inside was noisy and crowded and just want Sirius wanted. Sirius took the opportunity of being in such close proximity to so many people to grab Remus’ hand. He tugged Remus close, so they flush up against one another and led him to the middle of the crowd.

“Let’s dance.” Sirius turned around grinned at Remus. They were nose to nose. Sirius could smell Remus’ cologne and his sweat and shampoo. He could see the gold flecks in his iris.

“I thought you wanted the good looking men.”

“I have one right in front of me.” Sirius pressed a kiss right under Remus’ ear before he started to move and Remus followed suit. This was the best night of his life.

***

Remus woke up with pain behind his eyes before he could even crack them open. There was also an arm around his waist and hair in his mouth. “Blah, ak.” Remus pushed back from the other person in his bed to get the hair out of his mouth.

“Last time we woke up together, you were much quieter,” Sirius mumbled then shoved his face into his pillow.

“Your hair is all in my mouth.” Remus rubbed his eyes and then took stock of himself. He was still fully clothed, with the exception of his shoes and one sock. Sirius was nearly the same, but he was now in sweatpants and completely sock free.

“Fucking hell.” Remus rubbed his face and looked at the clock. “Shite, we have interviews, Sirius, get your arse out of bed.”

“No.” Sirius groaned as Remus rushed about to find clothes so he could shower and change. “We have twenty minutes!”

“Fine, okay. Just stop yelling.”

Remus rolled his eyes then went off to shower. In the shower, he could help but think of his day before. He was a gold medalist then he partied with his friends and family. After that Sirius and he went to some random club, danced, and drank more. Sirius had also kissed him. Well, not a kiss but his lips met his skin.

A half hour later they were being rushed to the Olympic village for a few interviews, the first being with Channel 4. “All right, lads?”

“Quite all right.” Remus grinned and looked down at his medal.

“Brilliant,” Sirius said, but it didn’t sound like he meant it. He looked like some rockstar who had been on a week-long bender. Sirius’ grey eyes were hidden behind a pair of dark Raybans. His hair was up and in a messy bun, and he had a five-o’clock shadow. His jeans were artfully torn and over his team GB shirt was a lightweight leather jacket. Sirius did not look like a profession, medal winning, diver.

“Have a good night last night then? Good celebration.”

“Oh yeah, it was fantastic.” Remus grinned. He felt so awkward. He hated be on telly.

The reporters chatted with them about the journey to the Olympics and how their previous day of completion went. All the feelings, emotions, etc. Then one of them brought up something that Remus was not expecting. “So, there’s a lot of speculation out there that you two are an item.”

“Did you talk to my mum?” Remus said before he could catch himself.

Everyone laughed, except Sirius. “No, it’s all over the internet. People see some serious chemistry between you two.”

“Of course we have good chemistry if we didn’t know we’d be horrible partners. We wouldn’t be sitting here.” Remus reasoned.

“So, there’s nothing between you?”

“Only because we’re professionals,” Sirius said, and Remus gave him a startled look.

“You’re saying…”

“Well, I fancy the pants off the man, but I was being my most professional self, which is rather hard when you like someone so much. It’s daft, the whole thing. I hate it.”

“Are you two dating now it’s over?”

“I didn’t…” Remus trailed off. “We haven’t even talked about this.”

“Well, maybe you should.” The perky blonde said.

The rest of the interview went by quickly, and Remus spent the entire time feeling completely dumbfounded over how it all came out. Sirius ran away from the interview once the mic was off of him. Remus was right on his heels. “You fancy me? Is that what you wanted to tell me after our competition?” Remus asked quietly.

“Yeah, I do. Is that okay?”

“Is that okay?” Remus laughed. “What the bloody hell do you think?”

Sirius pouted, sticking his bottom lip out. “I don’t bloody know.”

“Honestly? You’re daft. I’ve wanted you since we met if that’s okay. But you do the whole, ‘I don’t do relationships’ thing and all your random shags.”

“But I cuddle you and hang out with you and cook for you and do everything with you. I also brought you out dancing last night and didn’t even bat an eye at the half naked men around me because you were right there.” Sirius said, pulling Remus behind a media trailer. “I want you. I’ve never wanted a relationship before, but I want you and you’re overprotective mum and sarcastic dad and all your mates.”

Remus licked his lips then took Sirius face in his hands and kissed him passionately. “I wish you’d have said something before.” He said when he pulled back for some air.

“Let’s go tell your mum, she’s going to lose her mind.”

***

_One Year Later_

“What the bloody hell was that?” Remus made a face at Sirius’ balk.

“I don’t know.” Sirius shrugged. “Hanging around you too much.”

“Fuck off.” Remus gave him a playful push. “Let’s do this, shall we?”

The dive started off with a handstand. It was the exact one that Remus had hurt himself on in the London Olympics. Even though there was that anxiety in the pit of his stomach, he knew that he could do it.

“Oh, we’re so brilliant together. 2020, here we come.” Sirius said after they resurfaced. They were doing their usual diving after lunch at the Potters.

“Come on, let’s go home.” Remus swam closer to give his partner a sweet kiss.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, you mad man.”


End file.
